Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

A young Orthodox couple were sharing with me one day during a Bible study how nervous and anxious they were just thinking about the possibility of bringing children into today’s world (and at that time it was far less woke and insane).  They had even thought maybe they shouldn’t!  After thinking about it awhile, I told them something the Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, once said when he was asked what he would do if he knew the world would end tomorrow.  He replied, “I would go out and plant a tree.”  Now, there are some who say this is spurious and concocted while others maintain it’s true.  Regardless, it says something utterly important: faith, hope, and love.  Planting a tree in light of the world’s ending tomorrow is a defiant act of faith that overcomes the world.  That’s what Sacred Scripture says.  “Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God,” Who upholds the cosmos “by the Word of His power” (Hb. 1:3; 1 Jn. 5:4-5). 

What we are doing here today is an act of faith, hope, and love.  It’s not the attraction of two persons that we celebrate here today, but the joining together of two souls – male and female – being united as one by Jesus Christ Himself – the same Jesus Who blessed and graced the Wedding in Cana of Galilee.  What we do here today by the hand of God is an act of defiant faith, especially in light of today’s cultural upheaval fed by irrationality and atheism.  And, it is a sign of hope and of love that is as radical as planting a tree, even if the world were to end tomorrow! 

Why is that?  Because the Mystery [Sacrament] of Marriage is a sign of the Kingdom of God (Ep. 5:20-33).  That’s what St. Paul says in his most beautiful depiction in Ephesians.  It is our Lord Who is the Founder and Benefactor of marriage purposely and intentionally from the creation of the world when He brought together one man and one woman, biologically distinct from each other, yet each bearing the divine image with the potential for growing in the likeness of God in their mutual relationship as husband and wife (Gn. 1:26-27).  In essence, God gave Eve to Adam for his sanctification and Adam to Eve likewise for her sanctification (1 Cr. 7:14, 16).

So, this is what the Church asserts today in this Mystery of husband and wife – the very goodness and wisdom of God in creation.  Thus, what God has joined together let no one – not even the world – dare to separate (Mt. 19:6; Mk. 10:9).  We are summoned today to return to God Who alone is the only Source of life and morals and values only to be found in His Kingdom – a Kingdom, our Lord reminds us, that is not of this world (Jn. 18:36) – and marriage as God has designed it is a witness to God and His Kingdom.  A Christian husband and wife – the servant of God, Elias, and the handmaiden of God, Beth – bears God and His Kingdom witness.  Hence, your crowns of martyrdom, that is, crowns of witness to God and His Kingdom.  He has set you over each other: the husband being first among equals with the Christ-like duty to die for his bride, and the wife to reverence her husband just as she does Christ God Himself (Ep. 5:20-33).  This is what the holy Apostle Paul says in his Epistle we heard today.  Each, however, are to be humble towards each other, serving one another in the very love that was crucified for the sake of us sinners and this world (Jn. 3:16).  In Jesus Christ, the Son of God, you are His new creation (2 Cr. 5:17), “crowned with glory and honor”!

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

PROPERS:

Ep. 5:20-33

Jn. 2:1-11